This gadget does exactly as promised: it looks like a thumbdrive (sort of) and fries the circuitry of any computer it’s plugged into. It’s made from camera flash parts, is charged with a standard AA battery, and delivers a 300V zap of DC destruction to the port for all your USB-murdering needs. Note that this […]

The Cobham catalog, exposed by The Intercept, features countless pages of surveillance gadgets sold to U.S. police to spy on American citizens: tiny black boxes with a big interest in you. In the creepily bland feature lists and nerdy product names is a whisper of a dark future; perhaps darker than anyone can imagine.

This image depicts the most commonly-found stylesheet colors on the web’s top sites—Paul Hebert did an amazing amount of analysis and this is just one of the intriguing visualizations he came up with. Most of these are obvious staples, especially HTML red and blue, though it’s interesting how far the blue “cluster” is from the […]

The Black Friday Mac Bundle 2.0 is one of the Boing Boing Store’s best-selling Mac bundles yet, and it’s about to come to an end. If you don’t get your copy now, here’s what you’ll be missing:This bundle comes packing 9 top-rated Mac apps in one package, at the hugely discounted price of just $23.99. […]

The Boing Boing Store’s Gift Guide is full of ideas for pretty much anyone in your life like hipster ice cub trays, Xbox controllers, Halo Boards, and even diamond necklaces. As always, all products in the Boing Boing Store come at great discounts, too. Shop by price bucket starting at under $20. Under $20:Bloxx Jumbo Ice Trays […]

Unlike traditional lighters, the SaberLight features an electronic plasma beam that’s both rechargeable and butane-free. This sleek lighter is even approved by TSA, so you’ll never be stuck buying lighters you’ll just have to throw away partially used. For some people, like me, this is a pretty big game-changer. The SaberLight’s beam is actually both hotter and cleaner […]

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Windy? Doesn’t look it. Even though that is clearly a beautifully calm summer’s day in the video, I think I’d rather brachiate down the ravine, cross the rapids and scramble up the other side rather than set foot on that, thanks.

Shorter and probably safer, but that’s the North Atlantic foaming against the granite rocks down there, and if you allow your eyes to focus on them it looks a long, long way down. I confess I got half way across before my bowels turned to water and I crept, white-knuckled, back to land… I don’t remember ever being more frightened in my life, and that’s including the time someone threatened me with a shotgun. At least a shotgun’s quick, whereas with the bridge you’d have whole seconds of flailing to catch yourself, your feet skidding across the wet boards,.. *shudder*

Can you imagine something like this in the US? With out litigious society and uncoordinated populace it’s guaranteed that *somebody* would quickly take a header between the planks and the state would be sued.

Early this morning at around 4 AM, an object believed to be a meteorite fell onto the Great Seito Bridge, completely destroying the bridge upon impact. As a result, Japan Rail has been unable to operate this morning; we will report back on this incident pending further developments.

I just crossed the suspension bridge in Tallulah Gorge, GA for the second time a few weeks ago. I got a little sick and panicky, and had to look at the footpath only. There were middle school kids jumping up and down on the platform to make everything bouncier.

Looks like some of the old railroad trestles kids dare each other to cross right here in the US…

Actually, it looks like it’s in moderately decent condition mechanically, just minimally planked. Are we sure this is really “old” rather than just scary to agoraphobes?

(I don’t have much fear of height, per se. My question is limited to whether I trust what I’m walking on and trust myself to walk on it. If I do, I’m good. Catch me someday and ask about building ledges.)

holyjeebusWTF! Is vertigo communicable? Someone should tell the CDC about this.

I’ve been on many a high precipice, narrow ledge, even crossed the occasional suspension footbridge in the middle of nowhere, but day-yum!

I’ve been on top of this, and several unprotected cliffs, but I know my limits now, and that includes footing other than bedrock. I’ve even driven along a path barely wider than trail in #9, but I had the benefit of the entire Sierra Nevada below my wheels. It doesn’t matter how nimble my twinkle-toes are when one weighs more than any other hiker; if something is rickety, and will fail, it will fail with my 300# ass on it.

However, I would do that Irish cliffs bridge in a nonce, it looks totally sturdy.

Morbid curiosity demands: Anyone know where in the nine hells that “Scariest Trail” is? –Update: from searching for the below vid, #9’s trail is El Caminito del Rey (Kings Pathway) in Spain. It’s over a century old, and was an access route for public works.

I figured it out: That isn’t the wind, he’s crossing the bridge on roller-skates! If the sound over isn’t faked, it’s definitely done without any windshield on the mike. There just isn’t that much wind in the video.

I had to hug myself all the way through that – and now I am physically ill. That is more from the shaky camera than the height terror though…I would force myself across this even if I had to crawl just to say I had done it.

LOL @ people noticing that the wind sounded terrible but there was no movement in the trees. Reminded me of when I was a little girl and we lived in Florida. One time my dad’s mother called concerned about a storm that was coming in. My dad made all these horrible sounds like wind, things banging around… he made her think that we were in the middle of a hurricane. Needless to say she freaked out but he laughed about it for years!

The Japanese bridge? Yeah, there are lots of those here. I love the fact that lawsuit liability doesn’t dictate archetecture here, it makes for some great fun!

That Spanish path, though, scared the everliving SH*T out of me. I mean, wholly jebus! The parts with just an iron bar- that guy has balls of steel the size of watermelons.

The Chinese mountain was probably the worst. I guess the lack of enough first-person didn’t shock me as much as the Spanish- but I imagine from what I saw the Chinese path is beyond all imaginable mind-fsuk!

These videos make me feel alive, really alive- I haven’t been that on edge for a while. I need to get back in my harness, and get back to swinging from a rope on the Hokkaido cliffs. I miss spelunking and climbing dearly- nothing in this world puts the fear of death in you better than really climbing a sheer cliff, or a total cave drop. Yeehaw!

how would you build it? Get a cord from A to B first, then use it to pull a rope, rope to pull cable, use first cable to carry pulley to draw second cable, two strands up and the rest is finishing work – I guess.